In Why So Much Anarchy? Kaplan says that “significant portions of the earth, rather than follow the dictates of Progress and Rationalism, are simply harder and harder to govern.” He focuses especially on the current anarchy enveloping and sinking the Arab world and sets out to explain the roots:

• The End of Imperialism. It may not have been fair, and it may not have been altogether civil, but imperialism, the mainstay of stability for human populations for thousands of years, is now gone.
• The End of Post-Colonial Strongmen. Colonialism continued for decades in the guise of strong dictators, who had inherited state systems from the colonialists.
• No Institutions. The key element, is the lack of institutions that fill the gap between the ruler at the top and the extended family or tribe at the bottom.
• Feeble Identities. With feeble institutions, such post-colonial states have feeble identities.
• Doctrinal Battles. As state identities weaken, sectarian and other differences within Islam come to the fore, often violently.
• Information Technology. While smartphones and social media can help topple governments, it cannot provide a coherent and organized replacement pole of bureaucratic power to maintain political stability afterwards.

Kaplan believes this anarchy will be with us for a long time to come, but also warns of even greater anarchy if current anti-authoritarian sentiment continues to spread in Russia and China. But we don’t need to look beyond our own land to see some laws ignored and others not applied.

When the world is in such an unstable world, it’s good to remind ourselves of five stabilizing and comforting truths:

1. Our sovereign God is on the throne of the universe, before whom nations, super-powers, and empires are like a drop in a bucket or a speck of dust on the balances (Isa 40).

2. God decides which nations will strengthen and rise, and which nations will disintegrate and fall (John 76:7).

3. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, is independent of this world, and is coming regardless of which country’s name is on each piece of ground (John 18:36; Rev. 11:15).

4. We can enjoy the peace and presence of God in our souls even when all around us the “mountains” are being cast into the midst of the sea (Ps. 46).

5. Each individual Christian is in the hand of God and although our physical safety is not guaranteed, we are spiritually and eternally safe (John 8:28-29).

6. The increasing anarchy may well be one of the “signs of the times” that remind us of the imminent end of all time, and the beginning of the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness not anarchy will dwell. (Matt. 24:7; 2 Peter. 3:13)

• Indian-Americans earn almost double the national figure (roughly $90,000 per year in median household income versus $50,000).
• Iranian-, Lebanese- and Chinese-Americans are also top-earners.
• Mormons have become leaders of corporate America, holding top positions in many of America’s most recognizable companies.
• Although Jews make up only about 2 percent of the United States’ adult population, they account for a third of the current Supreme Court; over two-thirds of Tony Award-winning lyricists and composers; and about a third of American Nobel laureates.

Risky Facts
Aware that they are risking a firestorm by even publishing such facts, the researchers are at pains to emphasize that the statistics cannot be explained by class privilege, educational background, or racial stereotypes:

• There are some black and Hispanic groups in America that far outperform some white and Asian groups.
• Immigrants from many West Indian and African countries, such as Jamaica, Ghana, and Haiti, are climbing America’s higher education ladder.
• Nigerians make up less than 1 percent of the black population in the United States, yet in 2013 nearly one-quarter of the black students at Harvard Business School were of Nigerian ancestry.
• Over a fourth of Nigerian-Americans have a graduate or professional degree, as compared with only about 11 percent of whites.
• By 1990, United States-born Cuban children — whose parents had arrived as exiles, many with practically nothing — were twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to earn over $50,000 a year.

The researchers warn that all groups rise and fall over time, puncturing the idea that groups succeed because of innate biological differences. Instead, the differences are mainly cultural, with the most successful groups in America “sharing three traits that, together, propel success.

1. A superiority complex: a deep-seated belief in your exceptionality.
2. Insecurity: a feeling that you or what you’ve done is not good enough.
3. Impulse control: ability to delay self-gratification

Read What Drives Success?, for further explanation of these three qualities, how #1 and #2 work together, how all three are required for success, how each trait on its own can become pathological, and, worryingly, how “each element of the Triple Package violates a core tenet of contemporary American thinking.” Current cultural forces are working directly against each of these three drivers of success. There’s also a brief but helpful discussion about how many African Americans face an especially challenging task to succeed.

Christian Success?
Of course, for Christians, this all begs the questions, “What is success?” and, “Is success even an appropriate aim for a Christian?”

We’ve all heard, and even preached: “God doesn’t say, ‘Well done good and successful servant’ but “Well done, good and faithful servant.’” But we mustn’t let that truth make us suspicious of all success, excellence, and achievement. Remember, that commendation is given to businessmen who are so skilled with their investments that they enjoy a 100% return! Note, God doesn’t turn round and say, “Right, Joe, now we’ve got to spread the wealth a bit.” No, horror of horrors, He gives them even more to invest. Sure sounds like divinely approved income inequality to me!

Measuring Success
Having said that, although the parable teaches that in some cases money can be an appropriate measure of success, Christians must never measure success by the size of investment portfolio alone. To measure success biblically, we must also ask, “How did he get the money?” and “How does he use, spend, or give that money?” But there are other important questions as well:

• What are his/her relationships like? (e.g. with husband, wife, parents, children, friends, neighbors, colleagues).
• How much does he/she serve others? (i.e. sacrificing for the good of others for no payment)
• How useful is he/she in the local church and community?
• What fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5) or characteristics of blessedness (Matt. 5) are present?
• What is his/her commitment to the Bible as the supreme rule of faith and life?

It can all be summed up with one simple yet profound question: How Christlike is he/she?

That’s God’s ultimate criteria for success, and there’s only one driver for that: the Gospel.

• Historic trends generated by events such as Watergate and the financial crisis
• The Government shutdown
• Pope Francis’ public callout of the Vatican bank
• NSA whistleblowing
• The disastrous Obamacare rollout

The three major trends are:

1. The role of “church” generates both more skeptics and stronger apologists.
When it comes to the value of a local church, Americans are now essentially lumped into three equal-sized groups: those who say it is necessary to attend church, those who say it is not, and those who are on the fence about the value of local church participation.

So what does all of this mean for church leaders? New Barna research highlights a renewed urgency for spiritual substance—not the worship style, the dress code, or the programs, but the substance of what it means to participate in church. The research shows the top reason people (39%) choose a church is for its teaching.

2. Americans wrestle with a culture of violence.
The nation’s institutional distrust is furthered by the fact that when it comes to violence, institutions sworn to protect citizens often seem powerless to prevent violent outbreaks. The Boston bombing, the Newtown school shootings and other horrific displays of violence showed how powerless our society can sometimes be to stop violence.

• New Barna research found adults name bullying at school (36%) as their top concern on issues of violence today.
• Only about one-quarter (26%) of all adults agree with the statement, “I have a patriotic duty to support the wars my country fights.”
• Nearly half of adults (47%) say they are less comfortable with violence than 10 years ago.
• Americans believe there is connection between violent behavior and playing violent video games (57%), watching violent movies (51%) and listening to music with violent lyrics (47%).

3. Trust in the public school system is failing.
Every fall, a majority of parents entrust their child’s future anew to the public school systems—but Barna’s research shows more and more are feeling conflicted about this course of action for their child.

• Nearly half of adults (46%) believe public schools have only gotten worse in the past five years.
• While more than eight out of 10 adults with school-aged children send their kids to public school, only 26% of those parents say public school is their first choice.
• 66% of all Americans believe “churches and faith-based groups should be given more opportunities to support local schools.”
• 95% of pastors believe Christians should get involved in helping public schools and 85% of practicing Christians agree with them.

These stats and infographics would make for a great youth group discussion, or even an after-church fellowship or small group. If framed within a biblical worldview there’s much encouragement for the Christian faith here and open doors of Gospel opportunity.

Possible Questions to Discuss
1. If teaching is the primary reason people choose a church, what can we do to teach better, highlight what we teach, and spread our teaching?

2. Rate your trust (out of 10) in institutions such as: the Church, Government, Hospitals, Schools, Businesses, Sports teams, etc. Explain why you trust or do not trust each.

3. How can we rebuild trust throughout society in our institutions, and especially the trust of millennials in the church?

4. What causes distrust in churches and how can we fix that?

5. How do Christians strike a balance between constructive critique of our society and constructive renewal?

6. “While three-quarters of all adults are looking for ways to live a more meaningful life, 40% of unchurched adults say they do not attend because they ‘find God elsewhere.’” How would you talk to such a person to persuade them to attend church?

7. What can the Christian message offer to a society that feels vulnerable in the face of unpredictable violence? How can we explain the violence? How can we protect from violence? How can we reduce the violence?

8. To what extent have you experienced the connection between violent media and aggression? In yourself and in others?

9. What steps are you taking to reduce your (and your family’s) exposure to violence in the media?

10. Do we have a patriotic duty to support the wars our country fights? Why or why not? What are biblical criteria for supporting a war?

11. How can churches help parents who are unhappy with public schools?

12. How can (or should?) individual Christians and pastors help public schools?

His “pen-pals” don’t just disagree with him. They hate him. He says he wouldn’t mind people saying he’s wrong, or even ridiculing him, but it’s the rage he was unprepared for. He tries to explain this inexplicable hostility:

1. The online world of comments and commentary does skew negative.

2. People who agree and support his view are less likely to express that compared with those who oppose it; agreement is more passive whereas anger is more active.

3. It contradicts what many people believe and experience. “Positive views on the present are seen as a slap in the face by people who have negative experiences, which, according to some polls, is the majority of Americans.” As an aside Karrabel notes:

4. Americans of the past few years are less positive about the future than they have been at any point since the 1970s.

5. The losers in any changing economy are going to be more vocal that those who have made gains.

If it bleeds, it leads
I’d add a couple more reasons. First is that bad news sells better than good news. “If it bleeds, it leads” is the mantra of so much of our media. As Dr. Bradley Wright explains in Upside: Surprising Good News about the State of our World:

The media sells negative worldviews. It’s not that reporters, writers, and editors are pessimistic people; rather, they have a strong incentive to tell us about the fearful, scary, and dangerous happenings in our world. The media is a business, and it succeeds by attracting viewers and readers. With hundreds of television channels and even more online news sources, how can they do this? One way is to offer something that is truly frightening. If watching a story can save us from some imminent danger, then maybe we’ll stop channel surfing long enough to watch it. If reading a report can protect us from a health scare, maybe we’ll pick the magazine off the rack. Sensationalism and fear sells—this is a fact of life that won’t change anytime soon. (Upside, 36)

We then get so used to the daily diet of disaster, decline, destruction, and death, that when someone tries to feed us something good and healthy, we often choke on it.

Second, there’s our fallen human nature which is warped towards the darkness (John 3:19). Gretchen Rubin calls this our “negativity bias”:

Our reactions to bad events are faster, stronger, and stickier than our reactions to good events. In fact, in practically every language, there are more concepts to describe negative emotions than positive emotions… It takes at least five positive marital actions to offset one critical or destructive action (The Happiness Project, 48).

Swallowed and Succumbed
With a few happy exceptions, Christians in general have also swallowed our culture’s negative narrative and have succumbed to our innate negativity bias. We seem to be addicted to bad and sad news, and have become so used to feeding on it that we don’t even realize it. In fact, in some circles, happiness has almost become synonymous with heresy. “He’s happy? To the stake!”

How then to recover a more balanced view? First, as Karrabel suggests, without closing our eyes to faults and failings, we must stop focusing relentlessly on what isn’t working:

Every society must find some balance between addressing real shortcomings and building on real strengths. The United States in particular oscillates between excessive self-congratulation (“the indispensable nation,” “the freest nation on Earth”) and extreme self-criticism.

Christians have to work harder at feeding upon (and feeding to each other) the good news that God is filling the world with.

Second, we have to read our Bibles and change the narrative from one of pessimism to one of optimism. No, we don’t believe in the inevitability of evolutionary progress. But we do believe in a sovereign and good God though, who makes His sun to shine and His rain to fall on the good and the evil, and whose tender mercies are over all His works. We do believe in God’s common grace witnessing to Him and making hearts glad (Acts 14:17). Above all, we believe in the power of the Gospel, way more than in the power of the American Presidency, to change our lives and to change our world.

If we’re going to be hated, let’s be hated for being Christian optimists.

Relationship Advice From America’s Longest Married Couple
81 years! Wow!! Lots of wisdom and humor here.

Ann: “Marriage isn’t a lovey-dovey thing, y’know, for 80 years, you learn to accept one another’s way of life…Devote your time to understanding one another, really, that’s the whole thing.

John: “We always hold hands…Well, we just take things as they come, and we’re contented, and we have lovely family to support us…Be content with what you have and what you’re doing…The key is to always agree with your wife.” (I think that’s a joke).

The beautiful picture really sums it all up.

But trust anti-marriage activist (yes, there is such a being) Cathereine Deveny to throw a wet blanket over it all. She doesn’t believe any relationship should involve “hard work.” No wonder she’s never married….and never will.

Why We Hate
Hope you didn’t get whiplash there; from beautiful love to ugly hate in just a few pixels. In this study of the Bosnian genocide, psychologists ask, “Why do humans do such terrible things to each other? What makes us capable of torture, war, and genocide?” This study answers “Evolution!” It’s not a new insight. For years Christians have been arguing for a necessary connection between genocide and a belief in evolution.

The Quest to Turn Computers into Creative Artists
“With the London Symphony Orchestra performing machine-written symphonies, Amazon selling books written by algorithms and film-makers scripting screenplays after conversations with a PC, are computers evolving from being a mere tool into becoming a creative force in their own right? For example, a new experiment by Volkswagen creates music based on a car’s speed, steering and whether it is in the city or countryside.”

It would appear that one of the main drivers of this work is the desire to create a creator. Does that not so clearly reveal the image of God in man? The Creator who created us to create has created us to create creators too.

Tongue-Controlled Wheelchair
Speaking of creativity, a new wireless device has allowed paralyzed people to drive a wheelchair simply by moving their tongues. Can’t help but think how much this imaginative ingenuity in the service of others pleases God.

Atheism is Boring
Turns out even atheists think that Atheism is Boring and need to spice it up their new “megachurch” a bit. Atheist pastors “choose to deliver an inspirational message rather than proclaim an anti-God talk. One of their ministers denies “that the congregation is just full of religion haters.” Instead, he says, they “want to be in a community that will inspire them to love, not hate. They want to be good, to live compassionately in a challenging and often hostile world. They want their children to grow up within a community that cares for them and will help them develop a positive value system by which to live. They want to change the world and make it better.” I join Danny in utter bafflement and bewilderment at why any atheist thinks starting an atheist church is a good idea.

War on Women
There’s a “War on Women” alright. It’s just that the war is not being waged by Republicans or Calvinists, but by Liberal Evangelicals. That’s a bit overstated and the article is also on the sensational side, but still worth a read. Most Tweetable line in this report on the recent Q Focus “Women and Calling” Conference  is “Gender roles do not equate to gender discrimination.” As Dr Janice Shaw Crouse said, “There is a huge difference, however, between the Biblical principle of equality — by which God created all of us as equal — and the radical distortions of the radical feminist principles that push hatred of masculine traits and try to get rid of the differences between women and men.” Some good quotes from Kathy Keller too, although the post in general is

Undiscovered Treasure
I’d always thought the Book of Psalms was an undiscovered treasure in much of the Church. But I never thought that it would break the record for a printed book ($14.2 million) at an auction yesterday. Like the Psalmist, I still think it’s underpriced (Ps. 19:10! You can read more about the history of this particular Psalter here.

Saved Without Faith
Many of us have admired Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Dr Charles Krauthammer for his media-savvy political analysis. In What’s the Matter with Krauthammer? Nicholas Hahn gives some fascinating insight into Krauthammer’s Jewish background and his present spiritual state. His most revealing comment: “Judaism does not insist on theology. Judaism is a religion of good works, not of belief. You don’t have to have a belief to be saved,”

Funeral for TV
Boy, am I glad I never made it in TV because  TV is Dying and Here are the Stats to Prove It. The graphs and figures are really quite incredible. I wonder how long until they’ll be saying the same about the Internet?

1. Charity: As part of our Christian duty to love our neighbor as ourselves, ChristCare would provide some level of healthcare for those who are uninsured or uninsurable. Although none would be denied basic healthcare, a just distinction in services offered would be made between those who are sick and poor through no fault of their own and those whose personal choices have made them ill.

2. Responsibility: ChristCare would call people to take personal responsibility for leading a healthy lifestyle. It would prioritize health education, disease-prevention, and financially incentivized accountability.

3. Reality: We cannot all get access to every medical treatment. Just because a drug is available does not mean its affordable. Just because something can be done does not mean it should be done. We need to recognize that we are mortal, that we are not going to live forever, and we must also learn to live with some measure of pain and discomfort at times. Otherwise, we could easily spend every last cent on medical treatment. ChristCare would propose realistic basic levels of care for different ages and illnesses.

4. Liberty: Although basic levels of care would be available for all, ChristCare would allow people the freedom to choose the level of health care and cost that suit their situation and circumstances.

5. Morality: ChristCare would not fund birth control or abortion. It would also reduce expenditure on diseases that have been brought on by sexual immorality, drug abuse, and other sinful choices.

6. Efficiency: ChristCare would be vigilant in driving down waste, inefficiency, and corruption in the provision of medical services and the associated administration.

7. Locality: As the “cultural mandate,” Babel, and the Great Commission demonstrate, God opposes centralization. Probably due to the increased dangers of corruption, God encourages the spread and sharing of power. Churches, schools, and other local organizations would be encouraged to be involved in health education and even the provision of some basic services.

8. Fallibility: While holding doctors and nurses accountable for serious malpractice, ChristCare would accept that a level of mistakes and errors are always inevitable in a fallen world and would implement policies that would minimize lawsuits and reduce excessive compensation payments.

9. Simplicity: Obamacare’s major accomplishment to date has been to make an already complicated healthcare system even more so. My wife is a doctor and even she is frequently baffled by the complexity of the American healthcare system. For even the simplest of procedures there seems to be a blizzard of paperwork and bills. ChristCare would aim for a streamlined simplicity.

10. Honesty: Hospitals seem incapable of estimating even to the nearest thousand dollars the cost of routine operations and even of basic tests like colonoscopies. Ask for a quotation and you’re told you have to phone about a dozen hospital departments to figure out everyone’s slice of the pie. This lack of transparency means that patients cannot compare prices in a way that would create a competitive market. ChristCare would be open, honest, and transparent about costs in order to drive prices down.

11. Equity: Without going down the Obamacare route of national price controls, there needs to be some way that patients can get redress when overcharged for medical services. Recently my wife had to take our baby to the local children’s hospital. She was there for about 20 minutes, questioned by a nurse for about 5 minutes, and the baby examined by a doctor for about 2 minutes before being given the all clear. Cost? $750! Thank you. Don’t mention it. ChristCare would establish independent mediators to advocate for patients and establish fair pricing.

12. Spirituality: ChristCare would take the spiritual dimension seriously and provide holistic care for the body, the mind, and the soul.

These are only principles of course; the practical details would take a huge amount of time and thought to work out. (See Dr Carl Ellis Jr.’s Alternative HealthCare System  for a much more detailed proposal). However, by measuring every proposal and practice against these principles, I believe we would get much closer to a universal and affordable healthcare system.

I know, I know, that’s a perverse and twisted reaction; but it eventually passes, sanity and reason return, and I try to listen for the truth in the midst of all the over-sensitivity.

So let’s examine these terrorizing and terrifying words to see if we should drop them, modify them, or indeed say them more than ever!

1. “The Bible clearly says…”
Apparently the age of IT and social media has turned millions into Bible scholars who don’t need to hear about the Bible’s clarity and who don’t believe the Bible is clear on much at all. Millennials want a lot more hesitation, qualification, humility, and admissions of fallibility in pastors’ sermons. It’s claimed that this will build greater trust in the Bible!

I agree that where the Bible is not dogmatic, the preacher should not be dogmatic. I also agree that way too many pastors claim the Bible’s clear support for what are often just personal preferences and prejudices. However, there is plenty that the Bible is crystal clear on, no matter how much people try to muddy the waters or blunt the blade. In these areas we must insist on the clarity and authority of Scripture.

Verdict: Say it, and say it loudly and authoritatively, but reserve it only for areas that are indeed clear.

2. “God will never give you more than you can handle”
Millennials object to this because they say it implies that if you can’t handle life, if you need outside help (e.g. friendship, therapy, etc), then your faith is not strong enough.

If millennials understand the phrase in this way, then I can understand why they hate it.

I actually dislike this phrase too, but for different reasons. God often gives us more than we can handle, in order to make us feel our need of Him, His Church, His people, etc.

Verdict: Retire the phrase, but for Murray rather than millennial reasons.

3. Love on (e.g. “As youth group leaders, we’re just here to love on those kids.”
They find this creepy and and troubling. “We may understand that we need help, but we certainly don’t want to be anyone’s project or ministry…It may just be semantics, but being loved on feels very different than being simply loved. The former connotes a sudden flash of contrived kindness; the latter is simpler…but deeper.”

I’m with them on this, although I’m not sure I can reason it out as well as they do. It just gives me the creeps.

Verdict: Take it to the trash.

4. Black and white quantifiers of faith, such as “Believer, Unbeliever, Backsliding”
“Millennials are sick of rhetoric that centers around who’s in and who’s out. We know our own doubtful hearts enough to know that belief and unbelief so often coexist….We want to be accepted, not analyzed.”

There’s a lot of misunderstanding here. Of course, unbelief exists even in the strongest believer’s life. However, the Bible is very clear (Did I just write that? I think I hear millions of millennials stampeding to the hills)…Yes, the Bible and Jesus are very clear that there are only two gates, two roads, two destinations, and that we are to analyze or examine our selves to see if we are in the faith. Sermons help us to do that.

Verdict: We need more of this black and white clarity, not less. But preachers need to be skillful spiritual surgeons to ensure that they do not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax.

5. “God is in control . . . has a plan . . . works in mysterious ways”
Millennials believe this but don’t want to hear it, especially when things go wrong in their lives. “We are drawn to the Jesus who sits down with the down-and-out woman at the well. Who touches the leper, the sick, the hurting. Who cries when Lazarus is found dead…even though he is in control and has a plan to bring Lazarus back to life.”

They have a point here. The sovereignty of God is a glorious truth, but Christians often do toss it out way too quickly and tritely when they should be weeping with weepers. Cue the best line in the whole article: “The Jesus we read about enters into the pain of humanity where so often the church people seem to want to float above it.”

Ouch! Painful truth.

Verdict: Keep it, but delay the use of it.

So, thank you millennials for your honesty and your challenges. We want to learn from you and love you.

But we also hope you will learn how to learn from us; and even learn how to love us too. Cliches and all.

Read The Washington Post article here: 5 Churchy Phrases that are Scaring off Millennials.

1. Christian dominionism: I have no idea what the Reverend lady means by this, and it would appear neither does she. In a remarkable feat of logical gymnastics, she somehow manages to jump from praying “Thy Kingdom come” to support for restarting the Confederate war. Oh, and Christian dominionism is also to blame for the recent government shutdown! If only Christians realized how powerful they were.

2. Hell and damnation: The Rev. Thistlethwaite is terrified of hell and damnation, which is strange given that she says they don’t actually exist. But as such beliefs ”help to create and sustain ‘hell on earth’ for many and “contradict God’s love and mercy,” they have to go. And who are we to argue, especially given that her source is the esteemed and infallible Rob Bell.

3. Women should submit: OK, by this point, I’m laughing out loud. I quickly check that it’s October 31 and not April 1. Apparently, submission “is institutionalized violence” and largely to blame for domestic abuse. I didn’t realize but apparently I believe in “Just Battering” because I believe Ephesians 5:21-33. “The front door of such a ‘religious’ home becomes a doorway to violence.” Hope my wife doesn’t read this.

4. God versus Evolution: Poor Rev. Thistlethwaite has apparently led a rather sheltered life. Although a former President of Chicago Theological Seminary, the blood-soaked streets of Chicago don’t even compare with the horror of, wait for it, The Creation Museum. Reader Discretion Warning: Read on only if you are over 18 and have a strong nerve. You ready? OK, here it is. She says, “One of the scariest places I have ever been was the Creation Science Museum in Kentucky.” Now please, stop rolling in the aisles. And once your sides have stopped splitting get this, young-earthers are also to blame for global warming, or “global weirding” as the clever Rev. puts it.

5. God Doesn’t Love You If You’re Gay: You were waiting for this weren’t you. Only surprise is that it’s not #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5. Another spectacular leap here for the athletic Thistlethwaite, this time sensationally cavorting from the belief that homosexuality is a sin to killing gays by forcing them to swallow bottles of pills and jump into nooses.

I feel so sorry for this poor woman. She says that these things “really scare me, not only this week but all year through.” What a tragic, terrible, and terror-filled life. Thankfully, however, our trembling philosopher-theologian has a perfect solution to this terror-filled existence.

Halloween!

Because, as she argues, “There’s so much that’s really terrifying in our world, Halloween shouldn’t be scary any more.”

I try to make Halloween fun for my children and now my grandchildren.  Some candy (along with healthy snacks!), fun costumes and community events are a great way to have family fun.  I think Halloween should be fun because there are too many really scary things in our world for kids and the adults who care about them.

“Healthy snacks!” Bet her house will be popular tonight.

And whatever you do, don’t, don’t, don’t even think about dressing up as an evangelical Christian. Especially if you’re in the Chicago area. I wouldn’t want you to spoil the ridiculous Reverend’s night.

What no one ever says today.

Thankfully.

This racist organization has been so successfully and rightly stigmatized that anyone boasting of membership would be immediately ostracized and isolated.

But we’re moving rapidly towards the day when “Hello, I’m an evangelical Christian,” will have the same consequences.

This tragic development in our culture has a context though, a back-story that’s been developing for decades, and it’s ignorance of the Bible, even among Christians.

Biblical Illiteracy
In Muslims and Jews Know Their Sacred Texts: Why Don’t Christians? Roman Catholic journalist and author, Christian Odone, bemoans the widespread ignorance of the book that has done so much to shape our culture and language.

A recent survey found that only one in 20 people could name all ten commandments, and that 62 per cent of respondents did not know the tale of the Prodigal Son.

Odone basically counsels the Church of England to abandon their proposed remedy of inviting adults to enrol in a “Pilgrim” course, a kind of Sunday School for grown-ups, because the only people who’ll come are the elderly who already know their Bibles.

Instead, Odone calls the church to invest in Christian schools by teaching all grades the Bible’s stories and morals, and to fight back against those who want to shut down Christian schools as “divisive,” or dilute the teaching to avoid being “exclusive.”

Biblical Backbone
Without this backbone of biblical knowledge, “Christians will become a community filled with ignorant and therefore insecure men and women. They will feel threatened both by secularists and the followers of other religions.”

Odone contrasts the ignorance of Christians with the Muslims and Jews who do know their Koran and their Torah, thus strengthening their sense of identity. She concludes with this rallying cry:

For too long, Christians have been on automatic pilot: they were the majority, that’s all they needed to know. Well, they have been proved wrong. Their way of thinking and their way of life is now under threat everywhere. In the Middle East and Africa, they face vicious persecution, as we have seen with the recent tragedies in Nairobi and Peshawar. But in the West too, as I argue in my e-book, “No God Zone,” they face discrimination. Laws and social stigma are used against them. It’s time to fight back – by reclaiming our heritage, including above all the Bible.

Defeatism 
Although writing in a UK context, most of what Odone says is relevant in the USA too. I disagree with her defeatism about reaching the Moms and Dads of today and focusing instruction and evangelism only on their kids. Let’s continue to believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Bible to reach and transform even the most untaught and unholy. From what I’ve seen, evangelism that bypasses parents has limited and short-term effects. Without parental interest, support, and commitment, child evangelism’s effects last only as long as childhood.

She’s right, though, that the “Pilgrim” course is not the best vehicle for reaching the masses (the name is a marketing disaster for a start – probably designed by an aging hippy bishop), but other “stepping-stone” courses such as Christianity Explored have been very successful in bridging the gap between the church and our secular culture, and communicating the content and message of the Bible in an accessible way.

Discrimination 
In addition to widespread biblical illiteracy, I believe that the increasing discrimination that Odone identifies at the end of her article is the greatest barrier to the future spread of Christianity in the West. She’s right, laws and social stigma are being used against us in an unprecedented way. I don’t think many Christians yet realize the extent to which the gay hobby has managed not only to de-stigmatize homosexuality, but also to stigmatize Christianity and Christians in the process.

Via education, politics, judicial decisions, movies, TV sit-coms and chat-shows, the rising generation are being gradually but powerfully persuaded to view evangelical christianity with the same horror that we would rightly associate with joining the Ku Klux Klan.

Which is not dissimilar to the stigma the first Jewish converts faced when turning to Christ as Savior. These were the worst of times, but also the best of times for the Christian church.

May God give us apostolic courage and faith, and above all an outpouring of the Spirit of Pentecost that we may not only spread the truth but stand for it regardless of consequences.